Everybody sing! Weeeee are the champions...

The next 10 weeks should prove to be fairly interesting.

While he may be everyone’s darling. Everyone’s favorite to win a 5th straight title. America’s sweetheart (besides, of course, Sandra Bullock). Jimmie Johnson seems already being crowned. Already being bestowed the title of History’s Greatest Driver. Heck, they’ve probably already put his name on the trophy.

Cue Freddie Mercury; wave your arms back and forth. “Weeeee are the champions, my friend...”

More like, “We’ll keep on fighting, ‘till the end...” at least for 11 other drivers.

With 17 consecutive weeks on top of the NASCAR point standings, I wouldn’t count Happy Harvick out of the running.

OK, I don't have photos of me with Happy or DeLana, although I do follow them on Twitter. Here's a shot of me with car owner Richard Childress and my BFFs from California, Laura in the middle and Roberta on the right. (Yes, it's blatant self-promotion, but gosh, we had fun in All-Star Week.)

Harvick has been Mr. Consistent this season, otherwise his name wouldn’t have been on top of the board week in and week out for so long. Happy’s posted 11 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 2010. Not exactly slouch.

And after all, don’t series officials squawk about consistency, consistency, consistency?

But what does Kevin (and DeLana, let’s be real about it) get for this.

That’s right, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Same thing that happened to TStew last year. Lead the standings all season long and get nothing. Not even a certificate. Only personal satisfaction.

Hoist that over your head in Victory Lane and pose for pictures.

At least give the guy a big, fat check with lots of zeros. Or maybe a trophy in honor of Big Bill.

Naturally, I’d like to see Tony win it all again. It wouldn’t be consecutive, but three IS a nice number.

Odds are pretty good for Richard Childress and Jack Roush this year, with three drivers each in the Chase. You realize, that’s half the field.

So let’s talk Roush for a minute. I’m thinking Greg Biffle. The Biff. Champion in the Busch Grand National Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. That would be pretty sweet for him to add a Sprint Cup title to that. And, in my humble opinion, he deserves it. My Netflix list has sent me Driven To Win lately. Biff was an unlikely sort to come to NASCAR. A little older than most, although he’s not old by any means, just older than most in the field today.

And he likes dogs. Big dogs. So he can’t be all bad. I met him at PetCo (where the pets go) during All-Star Week during a driver appearance. He autographed a few things for me and the NASCAR Pets calendar looks over my desk, October signed by the Biff. Yes, I'm wearing a Tony Stewart shirt here. And yes, again, blatant self-promotion.
But I digress.

Some people pick drivers by their colors or sponsor. I go by the pet. Which still doesn’t explain Tony Stewart, who at the time I came to racing, had Chihuahuas. And a monkey. Now, it’s cats. Siamese cats. I’m not fond of small, yippy dogs, nor do I especially like cats.

But I like Tony and never, never count him out when it matters. He has that determined look here and it was just for a million bucks at the All-Star Race, where he was defending his title from 2009. I was there then, too. Got a great burnout shot, the one on top of this post.

There you have it. My musings on the Chase. Happy, the Biff and TStew. Anybody but Johnson. Sorry Laura my west coast BFF, anybody but Jimmie.

Let the Chase begin!

From Bristol to You (Tube)

Well, here are my first tries at posting video.

I mentioned them Thursday in all about Bristol. And the Nationwide race is happening, so there's a little racing fix for the weekend.

In the one video, Jimmie Johnson was down a bunch of laps and had some issues keeping up with the pack, even on a restart, and there were a good number of those. I'm not saying the entire Bristol Motor Speedway was cheering and smiling, and even laughing, but certainly everyone around me did.



The next videos are Kyle Busch. C'mon, he'd just won the third race of the weekend, give the 20-something some credit. I didn't see him hung in effigy like last year. And some young men tried to come back to West Virginia with us. They had consumed mass quantities of adult beverages. But they knew West Virginia didn't have a beach within its borders.

Well, folks, there you have it. My first attempt at video with my camera. I hope you enjoy them.

Have to give KB props...

Love him or hate him, you have to give Kyle Busch his due. Winning the Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, at Bristol last weekend, hats off to KB.

The other story of the Bristol night race was Jimmie Johnson finishing up, oh, 85 laps down. That converts to what, more than 42 miles behind everyone else? It's only a 250-mile race! But at the outset, Jimmie was hot! There was a glimmer of hope for Tony when he finally passed for the lead, but it didn't last long.

JJ's had some issues since winning back to back at Sonoma and Loudon. He's finished outside the top 10 since way back in June. He's fallen like a paver block from a home improvement store, plummeting from 3rd to 9th in points. Yikes!


This shot is early in the night and I must say, JJ and Smoke were slugging it out for the lead.

Not long after, Juan Montoya tapped Jimmie and that's all she wrote. I shot some video of him waaaaaay behind the pack after a restart. But these things take forever to load. It will come in a different post. Maybe with the Kyle Busch burnout, for good measure. But they do take for-ev-er to upload.

Now, I will admit, my driver Tony Stewart had issues at Bristol, too. He had some choice words for his crew during the evening. He violated two of Coach John Wooden's three rules for success - 1. Always be on time (he obviously made the driver's meeting on time); 2 - never use profanity (he loses there) and 3 - never criticize a teammate (lost out there, too). And here's the crew trying to make the car right.


We have a break from Cup action until my birthday weekend, Labor Day Weekend, when the action moves to Atlanta.

So TiVO of Bristol and a truck race will have to suffice this weekend.

Now, don't play too hard, boys...

When you say, boys have at it, well, expect some bumping, banging, shoving and well, wrecking.

Dale Earnhardt must be spinning in his grave (no pun intended).

How far is too far? When does it become rage?

A year ago, NASCAR director of competition Robin Pemberton stood in front of 100 people at Joe Gibbs Racing at the Official NASCAR Members Club annual convention and said he can tell when a driver crosses the line. There are cameras everywhere in and around the cars on the track and he can see it in driver’s eyes.

I’ll give him that much. He can see the anger and premeditation on the monitors in the big red truck, which, by the way, is actually black.

But come on, tell them have at it, then when they do, act surprised at damaged cars?. Seriously? You couldn’t see flying cars and massive pileups coming?

Please. There are 43 cars driving well over 100 miles per hour, 200 mph sometimes, and you don’t think a little bump will send someone into the wall, the fence or infield?

Really?

If Carl said he wasn’t at fault I tend to believe him. He’s not ducked wreck-related issues in the past. He manned up a year ago after wrecking Kyle Busch and said, yeah, I did it. If the tables were turned he’d have done it to me.

And we all KNOW he was right, Kyle would have done it to him, and has. There's a lot of money on the line. Points and championships are fine, but a couple hundred thousand dead presidents on the line? Whatever means necessary within the law.

So who’s the villain here? Not Carl. I’d tag Brad Keselowski on this one. His aggressiveness is no different than that of Kyle Bush a couple years ago. We’ve seen Kyle hung in effigy at Bristol. He’s embraced the hatred. Maybe Brad should, too. Don't whine and send your daddy in (we've seen Danica's dad do that in Indy League). In a year or so, Brad merchandise will fly out of the souvenir haulers.

Am I saying no fault anywhere? No. Carl is a bully, on and off the track. Just because you’re built like Rambo doesn’t mean you can beat up everyone who steps in front of you in the jungle.

A lot of guys in the garage are saying they took it too far this time. OK, maybe they did. I personally don't really think so, but maybe they did, I wasn't on the track collected in a huge wreck, either. I drive an 11-year-old Taurus on I-64, not a million dollar racecar on a superspeedway.

I’m just saying turn about is fair play. You push me, I push you. Run with the big dogs, expect more than snarling.

Who will YOU vote into the Hall of Fame?

Well, here they are, the next group of nominees for the NASCAR Hall Of Fame.

Some I already voted for LAST year. Tim Flock and Richard Childress. Will I vote them again? Darn tootin' I will. Here's a little shot of me with RC on my recent trip to Charlotte, with a stop off at the Childress Vineyard.

But who for the other three? (Thanks for this list, nascar.com!)

Following are the 25 nominees:

• Bobby Allison, 1983 Cup Series champion and winner of 84 races
• Buck Baker, first driver to win consecutive Cup Series championships
• Red Byron, first Cup Series champion, in 1949
• Richard Childress, 11-time car owner champion in NASCAR's three national series
• Jerry Cook, six-time NASCAR Modified champion
• Richie Evans, nine-time NASCAR Modified champion
• Tim Flock, two-time Cup Series champion
• Rick Hendrick, 12-time car owner champion in NASCAR's three national series

(OK, same trip to Charlotte. Mr. Hendrick walked through the office complex above the display room in the 88 and 5 building. He stopped smiled and waved, but my shutter finger wasn't fast enough. Here, he's ready for the meeting he was headed to.)
• Jack Ingram, two-time Busch Series champion
• Dale Inman, eight-time Cup Series championship crew chief
• Ned Jarrett, two-time Cup Series champion
• Fred Lorenzen, 26 wins and winner of the Daytona 500 and World 600
• Bud Moore, 63 wins and two Cup Series titles as a car owner
• Raymond Parks, NASCAR's first champion car owner
• Benny Parsons, 1973 Cup Series champion
• David Pearson, 105 victories and three Cup Series championships
(His letter of application to NASCAR is in the HOF already. Here it is, Dave Pearson's resume, so to speak, to become a driver.

• Lee Petty, winner of first Daytona 500 and first three-time Cup Series champion
• Fireball Roberts, won 33 Cup Series races, including the 1962 Daytona 500
(See the photo below with my vote for him.)
• T. Wayne Robertson, helped raise NASCAR popularity as R.J. Reynolds Senior VP
• Herb Thomas, first two-time Cup Series champion, in 1951 and '53
• Curtis Turner, early personality, called the "Babe Ruth of stock-car racing"
• Darrell Waltrip, winner of 84 races and three Cup Series championships
• Joe Weatherly, two-time Cup Series champion
• Glen Wood, as driver, laid foundation for Wood Brothers' future team success
• Cale Yarborough, winner of three consecutive Cup Series titles, in 1976-78

I'm saying Cale Yarborough. And, Fireball Roberts. Like the photo? Kinda neat. That's the jacket he wore to Atlanta Raceway a week before the on-track wreck which killed him. All these years, from 1964, the stuff was still in the pockets - a lighter, his signed garage pass and a race ticket.

Vote early, vote often, part deux...

Well, according to my Sprint insider - my NASCAR Sprint Cup phone application, the top 10 in All Star voting right now are (alphabetically):

A.J. Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Bill Elliott, Carl Edwards, Juan Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., and Mike Waltrip.

Don't forget, voting by Sprint phone is double the vote! I just clicked BORIS! BORIS! BORIS and one for The Biff!

See you at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That has a nice ring, doesn't it? I just need to rename the phone number on my contact list, and therefore, my personal ticket agent.

Vote early, vote often

The All-Star Race is coming at us fast. OK, not just the All-Star, but the 5th annual Official Nascar Members Club convention and all the fun that goes along with it, including the almost ready to open Hall of Fame.

Did you vote on the first class in the HOF? I did. I still say the France folks should go in as a whole, not individually, but I digress. I voted for Junior Johnson and Big Bill Senior. The rest of my picks, well there’s always next year. I’ll be clicking that pick again for Tim Flock – another family group, actually, BP and DW, and most likely Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick.

We digress again. Back to the All-Star. Did you know if you are a Sprint customer and vote by texting, it counts DOUBLE?! Yessss! Get those fingers talking to Sprint.

My choices ? Let’s see. No particular order or reason: Marcos Ambrose and the chosen Juan for international flair. Robby Gordon just for potential sparks. Do you have a friendly pool on who’ll cause “The Big One” at certain tracks. We do. I always pick Robby Gordon. Although I’m adding Keselowski to that pool anymore. Back to choices.

Casey Mears, because he’s family of a gentleman at my church and local realtor Dave Mears. Mikey W just ‘cause my friends Laura and Roberta like him. I wonder if he can Tweet from the car? And my personal all-time favorite character. My buddy. BORIS! BORIS! BORIS! Who said? I Said!

And you can vote often – unlimited – up to one hour before the start of the race on May 22 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Good thing, too. We here in the Mountain State already have the reputation of voting ourselves, all our dead relatives and even the dog. You know that’s why we give our animals people names, right? So they can vote, too.

Already in the race are :
Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne (whoo!), Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Bobby Labonte, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, David Reutimann, Tony Stewart (my man, Smoke!), Brian Vickers.

Alrighty then. Vote early. Vote often.